PARIS — A jury is expected to be selected next week for the retrial of a former Bethel man convicted of raping a sleeping woman in 2012.
Spencer Glover, 32, was sentenced to six years in prison after a jury found him guilty on one count of gross sexual assault in July 2012.
That decision was vacated on appeal from Glover’s attorney by the Maine Supreme Court last March, after it found the lower court had erred and deprived Glover of his rights.
A clerk confirmed Wednesday that a jury could be picked Wednesday, Sept. 10. Glover’s attorney, Walter McKee, said a two-day trial will begin Sept. 29.
According to Sun Journal records of trial testimony, Glover was accused of taking advantage of a woman who had been drinking with other friends at his former home in Bethel. Rather than letting her drive home drunk, he and a friend took her to an upstairs bedroom.
Later, Glover allegedly entered the room and had sex with the woman while she was sleeping. The victim testified that she woke up to the assault.
Glover testified he and the woman engaged in consensual sex that she initiated, after admitting he lied to the woman and police because he knew he’d face charges and was afraid.
During sentencing, the woman also spoke. According to archive records, at the time she said she’d hoped Glover would take a plea deal rather than make her testify about the incident in court. Instead, she said, “he made me sit through a trial with a judge and a jury and my family and made me recount what happened.”
In its ruling, the Supreme Court found that prosecutors never should have been allowed to enter into evidence Glover’s refusal to voluntarily submit to a warrantless DNA test before he was arrested.
From there, the court said prosecutors built a theme that Glover lied throughout the trial to discredit his testimony that the sex was consensual.
New evidence cannot be entered into the trial, a victim’s advocate close to the case said Wednesday.
ccrosby@sunjournal.com
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- Spencer Glover
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